Google+ boss Vic Gundotra leaving Google

Google executive and head of the company’s Google+ social network, Vic Gundotra, has unexpectedly announced that he is leaving the company.

Gundotra had been at Google for eight years, during which time he spearheaded the creation of the Google+ platform that finally saw the company offering a competitive and fully integrated social network.

Now Gundotra has announced that he is leaving Google.

“Today I’m announcing my departure from Google after almost 8 years,” wrote Gundotra on (what else?) Google+. He went on to highlight some of his achievements at the company, as well as paying tribute to his boss and Google co-founder Larry Page.

“From starting Google I/O, to being responsible for all mobile applications, to creating Google+, none of this would have happened without Larry’s encouragement and support,” wrote Gundotra.

Page, for his part, posted his own Google+ tribute to Gundotra. “Vic – thank you for a tremendous almost eight years at Google,” he began.

Page too mentioned Gundotra’s key contributions to establishing Google+ and the annual Google I/O event, claiming that “These were vintage Vic projects.” He also mentioned Gundotra’s work on Google Maps navigation, revealing that “when I first used turn-by-turn navigation, it blew me away.”

Gundotra did not mention what prompted him to leave Google after eight years, nor did he reveal what he would be working on next. “Now is the time for a new journey… I am excited about what’s next,” is the extent of what he had to say on the matter.

In the meantime, Recode claims that Larry Page has already appointed vice president of engineering, David Besbris, to Gundotra’s newly vacated role, though there has been no official announcement as yet.